Magic Johnson Passed On Nike Stock Offer From Phil Knight in 1979

With eight-figure yearly earnings and a reported net worth of $500 million, Magic Johnson should not have any huge regrets when it comes to making bad financial decisions. But during a recent appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Magic admitted to one costly error in judgment when he was leaving Michigan State to go into the 1979 NBA Draft. "When I first came out of college, all the shoe companies came after me," he said. "And there was this guy, Phil Knight, who just started had Nike."

"All the other companies offered me money, but they (Nike) couldn't offer me money because they just started," Magic said. "So he said something [about] stocks—'I'm gonna give you a lot of stocks.' I didn't know nothing about stocks. I'm from the inner city, we don't know about stocks, you know, at the time."

"Boy, did I make a mistake," Johnson admits. "I'm still kicking myself. Every time I'm in a Nike store, I get mad. I could've been making money off of everybody buying Nikes right now." SportsGrid points to an Investopedia article which claims that if someone took out a $1,000 investment during Nike's initial public offering (IPO) in December 1980, the venture would be worth $729,575 today. without reinvesting dividends.

Now you can completely understand why Magic is still kicking himself over a decision he made nearly four decades ago. Because you know what's better than being worth half a billion dollars? Being a billionaire.

No Articles Found. Try Our Search Here:

Now Trending

COMPLEX participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COMPLEX gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Our editorial content is not influenced by any commissions we receive.